Book News and Reading/Word Quizzes

DaVinci Code Author Cleared
A judge in London dismissed the copyright case against The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown today.

According to USAToday's account, the victory is celebrated by writers:

Authors feared a chilling effect if Brown lost the case. "A novelist must be free to draw appropriately from historical works without fear that he'll be sued and forced to stand in a courtroom facing a series of allegations that call into question his very integrity as a person," Brown said in his statement.

Quiz Time
I just love taking tests and I love classic lit, so when I saw a How Bookish Are You? quiz, I had to participate. However, I was severely embarassed by my score, and I refuse to share it. But maybe you can beat me. It wouldn't take much. Give it a shot: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/departments/adultlearning/?page=Quiz152&Quizid=152

I didn't do much better on the word origin quiz: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/departments/adultlearning/?page=Quiz81&Quizid=81

Fortunately I found the spelling quiz and redeemed myself: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/departments/adultlearning/?page=Quiz103&Quizid=103

Vacationing with Duct Tape!

The end of the week is near, and it seems only fitting to celebrate the greatness of duct tape before another week passes.

An Opportunity to Share
The syndicated Hints from Heloise column invites your duct tape hints/stories, the top 10 of which will be printed. Now, I hope you’d think of your favorite blogger as you’re sharing.

So I'm sure you're wanting to know if I've shared my favorite duct tape story with Heloise? I definitely will, it’s just a matter of picking which of the many favorites. It’s like picking a favorite child or a favorite book... it's hard. There is bribery involved and the "what have you done for me lately" questions. But I'll pick and submit.

Who Knew?
A 2003 report claimed duct tape sales over $100 million annually in the U.S. I’m guessing that number has jumped tremendously since the birth of this blog and my contributions to make the world a tape-ier place.

You Heard it Here First
Vacation time is rolling around, and I want to make sure you know that the dates for the third annual Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival have been set: June 16-18. Here’s an excerpt from the web site:

Back for the third consecutive year, the Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival honors the beloved fix-all known for its million and one uses. The three-day celebration – beginning Friday, June 16, 2006 – encourages duct tape fanatics, artists, kids and adults to salute the American staple product. Hosted in the “Duct Tape Capital” of the world and home of Duck® brand duct tape – Avon, Ohio – the celebration will boast traditional festival favorites, including rides, food, games and live entertainment.

Make your travel plans now. Will your favorite blogger be attending? Well, let’s just say that if the duct tape air plane plans I have unfold the way I hope, I’ll be there in style.

Photo of Last Year's Festival
Source: Avon Duct Tape Festival web site

The Loss of Penmanship

Have you spent much time lately thinking about how little we value penmanship these days? Personally, I’m grateful since my handwriting has never been what you’d call spectacular. I’m one of those “good enough for gov’ment work” kind of people, especially when it comes to penmanship. And I think I’m not the only one.

My friend Travis sent over an article on the decline of handwriting courses in elementary education. Educators have decided that teaching handwriting is not as practical as using the time for other courses, such as computers.

Cursive writing, once a cornerstone of American education, is becoming a cultural artifact as computers and the demands of standardized tests squeeze it out of its once lofty position.

Taught for more than 300 years in the United States, cursive has a storied past. But in a number of Michigan schools, it has been reduced to an independent study, an "as-we-have-time" course in second or third grade.

For traditionalists, the demise of cursive is an outrage - the loss of a skill, even an art form. People who print argue that there's no point in wasting students' time to teach a vestigial skill in a computer age. For the educators in the middle, pragmatism wins.

And I’m just as thrilled. I have an urge to snicker at any formal document that isn’t typed and printed. And think about it: in the course of a day, how many times more likely are you to e-mail or text message someone versus send them a note? For that matter, how often do you write anything down when you can use digital technology? It could be that at some point our handwriting becomes a mutated strand of Times New Roman, and no one even remembers what the term cursive ever meant. As Travis hypothesizes, “If this happens will graffiti only be perpetrated by the ultra educated?”

Welding and Surfing

On the Way
I’m consulting with an expert, and I promise an in-depth scoop on everything you need to know about boiling and eating crawfish.

Drop Your Hood
Meanwhile did you know that April is National Welding Month? In recognition of that fact, I salute my favorite welder, Cuz, who toughed out an all-guy welding class in college to earn her Industrial Technology degree. As you may remember, I gained an appreciation for welding at a young age, so I have a special admiration for Cherie’s skills.

Links I Surfed Today
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11966059/?GT1=7850
Grammar Revealed in a Whale’s Love Song. Any linguistic students out there? Turns out whales have their own version of grammar. Or would the better term be symbol? Or sign?

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/story?id=1679393&page=1
Nantucket’s Off-Season Charms. This article reminded me of one of my favorite vacations. I can imagine being there right now. Ah, if only….

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,188944,00.html
Female Mice Predisposed to Steal Other Females' Mates. Some instincts are universal.

http://msnbc.com/modules/take3/mar/default.htm?s=6&p=10
Hairdos through the Years. For some reason the Mullet didn’t make the list….

Summertime and the Livin's Easy

So the Tigers lost. Maybe the trick by Bunch (Ninetyandnine’s new monthly blogger, by the way) didn’t work? Then again, maybe I reversed the charge by skipping out on the LSU party for a crawfish boil. That’s right, I sold out the LSU bengals for another beloved Louisiana treasure—crawfish.

Saturday was truly the first day of summer in Louisiana. (We have no spring—just an awkward tumble straight from our so-called winter to summer.) And Saturday really seemed to me to mark that fist day. Everything is green and the weather has become humid and... well... hot. And thanks to my gracious friends, the Naquins, I attended my first crawfish boil of the year. It is still a little early, but wow, were those crawfish good. The kind of crawfish that make your entire face burn, but not so painful you can’t taste them. And, of course, one of my favorite things is the lagniappe that gets thrown in the pot: corn, onions, carrots, potatoes, and sausage. When it was all said and done, we only had a little of the two sacks of crawfish left and several full people with very happy faces.

So it is now officially summer in Louisiana as far as I’m concerned. Nothing says it like standing over newspaper-covered tables piled high with the little red jewels. So fire up the jet skis and take out a second loan to pay your air conditioning bill this year. I predict a hot summer but a good crawfish season!